Wharfedale 124, Manchester 5

With the outcome of this National League One match not so much guaranteed as pre-ordained, speculative interest focused on the mildly callous question of the eventual final score.

Would Wharfedale, hardly renowned for turning the screw against limited foes, manage to match the hidings handed out by the visitors’ earlier opponents?

Crisis club Manchester had already shipped 388 points in three games.

So Wharfedale’s 20-try, 124-point haul represents – astonishingly and dishearteningly – just about an average defeat for the hapless Reds.

But despite being so manifestly out of their depth, the visitors earned admiration and even support from the crowd for gamely refusing to let their heads drop.

Less sympathy may be due to a club and its past management whose combination of greedy over-reaching ambition and financial recklessness results in such a current playing legacy.

Manchester have managed to survive two uncomfortable spells in the cut-throat atmosphere of Division One and, on their previous visit to Wharfedale in the wake of relegation, seemed to have learned their lesson.

Less reliance on the transient mercenary player and more on the development of second-team strength was their humble mantra then.

Bur some people never learn. And two seasons ago another promotion push was duly underway with an experienced but ageing side recruited for the purpose.

And when the legs and commitment, not to mention the money, ran out, it was back to earth again.

Then to cap it all this summer, in the words of Wharfedale programme editor Gordon Brown – who knows a thing or two about money and its language – “they were distracted by an abortive offer of a financial injection from an untested source.”

So, in the end, no money, no coach and no team with the players jumping ship to the greener financial grass of such as Sedgley Park, Macclesfield and Caldy.

And so a young and inexperienced squad, largely recruited by incoming coach Paul Reid, are left on a slippery slope.

For Wharfedale too, the match in some ways presented something of an awkward challenge. A case of damned if you don’t and damned if you do.

But – in keeping with their organised and disciplined start to the season – the Greens made the most of the virtual training opportunity that Saturday’s match afForded them.

Twenty tries in all, including eight in the opening half, which ended at 50-5. And 12 after the break as tired dejection began to erode the Manchester cause.

Certainly the Greens did most things well. They kept their shape throughout. There were as many carefully-constructed finishes – the products of flowing and cohesive play – as tries resulting from powerful individual breaks.

And concentration levels were sustained with wastefulness and handling error commendably less in evidence than has sometimes been the case.

And also there was the chance for Wharfedale new boys to catch the eye.

At least the bullying running came from players who will do the same against more robust opposition. The scoring avalanche was book-ended by the massively impressive Tongan flanker Latu Maka’afi.

Virtually unstoppable on the charge, he opened the scoring with two tries within the first seven minutes, scampered a third on the hour and capped a vigorous afternoon’s work with a final length-of-the-field run after securing an opposition overthrow at a line-out ten yards from the home line.

Not to be outdone, fellow flanker Dan Solomi pulled off a similar eye-catching score after a trademark rousing run.

Sensible early direction of play by fly half Joe Ford soon exposed the opposition’s tackling frailty as corner line-out ball was moved into midfield, giving the Wharfedale runners space to hare at the defence, bringing first-half tries for Chris Malherbe, Mark Bedworth, Ford and lurking lock Alastair Allen (2).

Manchester’s solitary try, well taken off the back of a scrum by half-back partner Danny Carton, was greeted by warm applause.

Inevitably, with only three subs, Manchester were more porous after the interval.

Debutant winger Ian Culligan, fresh from his Foresters’ five tries the week before, showed impressive speed of foot and thought in hitting attacking space hard for two early second-half tries. And selfless distribution from Luke Gray, who replaced Ford at half-time, together with clinical orchestration from Andy Hodgson, ensured tries at regular intervals till the final whistle.

The full back’s touch was superb, whether providing studied final passes for colleagues Malherbe (3), impressive long-striding substitute winger Ian Dixon (2) or roving prop Neil Clarke.

His smoothly-anticipated support play also earned him two himself. Bedworth added seven conversions to add to Ford’s earlier five.

WHARFEDALE: A Hodgson; D Hall (I Dixon 45), C Malherbe (capt), M Bedworth, I Culligan; J Ford (L Gray 40), D Matthews; A Mason, S Graham (D Charnley 51), M Chivers (N Clarke 51); J Mason, A Allen (R Brown 48); L Maka’afi, D Solomi, T Bell.

MANCHESTER: R Wellock; O Lucas (S Davis 2), M Rockey (H Noar 53), L Haidinger, M Hall; G Taylor, D Carlton; K Stock, J Gould, S Prest, M Walker-Fitton, J Doney; F Collyer-Bristow, Z Hammond, C Harriman.

REFEREE: Matt Daubney (RFU).